21 Mar 2019
At Muirfield, our MindMatters program explicitly teaches social and emotional skills. There are five kinds of social and emotional skills that are important for children and young people to develop: self-awareness, ie identifying emotions and developing self-confidence; self-management, such as impulse control, self-discipline and goal setting; social awareness, for example, appreciating diversity; relationship skills, including communication and team work skills and finally, responsible decision-making. Our MindMatters program covers all of these over the course of a young person’s schooling.
Seminars, workshops, presentations for all year groups occur throughout the year, focusing on aspects of social and emotional wellbeing relevant to the age and development of the cohort.
In March, a whole day program was organised for Year 7, covering a range of topics; including bullying, developing team work, and self-organisation skills for learning.
Year 7 students reflected on their learning. Layla Mehjar said, “We learnt about bullying and what it means and its impact.” Isabella Primrose said, “We also learnt to prioritise assignments. And that school can be fun."
Social and emotional education is also key for our school’s strong positive relationships which are among the greatest factors that prevent bullying and social isolation.